This price does include wheels but no motor reading through the website it says it will off the motor/gearbox at a special rate later in the series!

What do we reckon to that then?

Looked on the DJH web site and you can buy an A3 for £462.00 + £100 for motor and gearbox + £128 for wheel set so to buy it direct in one hit £690.

To me that doesn't look too bad, would be about the only way I could ever afford to buy an O gauge loco...monthly!For starting out in a brass kit though I would of thought a much simpler one would have been better!

All we need now is Hornby magazine to do an equivalent in OO gauge' perhaps a wagon, brass or plastic?

DJH have apparently sent drawings to Hachette so they can produce some of the components in plastic, someone spoke to DJH about it at Warley, the guy from DJH said the parts are being made by a 3rd party and they look good quality.

The wheels are not the slaters wheels though that DJH normally supply these have been made by a 3rd party again the DJH guy said they were good quality from what he had seen.

Somebody has already built the cab which comes with part one, and in the instructions everything is glued using epoxy resin type glue or super glue..NO SOLDER anywhere!The guy who has already built the cab has actually used solder though.

I would like to go for this, but I would follow the instructions and use glue just to see if you could actually get a decent working model just by following thier instructions!

At just over 2 years to complete it's certainly not a sprint!

Oh and reading the website, you actually get 4 copies every month delivered, not one a week, so at least every month you should get enough parts to make it worth while in doing something!

Reading the blurb it will give the oportunity to buy at a special discounted price a controller and motor from issue number 5!The controller is a Gaugemaster combi the motor is a:- "Sultzer 12v motor/gearbox unit double 2.0mm shaft, 8200rpm; gearbox in brass, bronze and steel, ration 25:1"

I have no idea if this is the original motor gearbox that would be supplied by DJH if you were to buy from them, I may send an email and ask!

The kit will include "waterslide transfers for lettering and lining"Depending on what they say is a special discounted price for the motor/controller bearing in mind the controller can be picked up for £30 and if it is the motor gearbox from DJH which is £100 I reckon this will end up about £100 more than buying from DJH direct.

Partwork £617.26 plus motor/gearbox and controller

DJH £690 plus transfers and controller

Will just have to wait and see I guess, still thinking about going for it or not!

Anyway here is the cab, all built to the instructions, the wash out plug holes in the cab sides were not holes, just half etched out, I just made a small hole then opened them up with a file.I also ran a bead of glue down the inside cab edges, there is just not enough area to bond on relying only on the edges, so slight deviation from instructions already, better than the cab sides falling off!

Thought it over and have subscribed, starting with issue one, which will be my back-up cab incase it's required, as it's only 50p not really a problem.

I have now found that the motor that Hatchette are advertising is available from DJH HEREThis is £51.50, so it will be interesting to see what special offer deal the magazine will charge for the pick-ups motor mount and controller. I have looked at the DJH web site and it looks like the plunger pick-ups are supplied with the wheel set, these are £9.50 for 6(slaters)So we can get the combi controller for £30The motor/gearbox for £51.50The pick-ups for £9.50Total of £91 + the cost of the motor mount and I guess a length of track they are offering as well I think.This is just a bit of information for anybody else who intends to have a go, so they have an easy price reference guide, I'm sure it would be possible to buy just the motor mount from DJH as this kit is based on theirs anyway, don't know at what price though!

I will probably start a new topic just for the build saga showing parts and pics as I go along, as I think it will make it easier to follow(thats if it's ok with admin)

Hi,The FS is only the 2nd O gauge/ 7mm loco I have tried, although I have built a number of O gauge waggons etc. The 1st loco was brass etched & soldered but I found later that many of the parts needed to be laminated as the shim brass supplied was too thin on it's own. This became a nightmare for the valve gear trying to solder two parts and expect them to slide together? so I recently discarded the kit. I have read many of the postings on "Building the FS" and have decided this would be more to my ability.The cab I built with the windows fitted detail outside, which was OK but fiddly, I then decided as the frame detail fitted better on the inside to remove and fit them all with the frame outside and the detail inside. I see now from the designers comments on one of the blogs that this is how he ment them to fit. My good fortune not expertise but I could not really see from the instructions which way was correct. The instructions I believe are very good but I can see that expert help from the blog may be required if I / we are to avoid other short commings.

QUOTE (wiggy25 @ 29 Dec 2007, 14:42)

Well bought issue 1, at 50p not really a bank breaker!

Reading the blurb it will give the oportunity to buy at a special discounted price a controller and motor from issue number 5!The controller is a Gaugemaster combi the motor is a:- "Sultzer 12v motor/gearbox unit double 2.0mm shaft, 8200rpm; gearbox in brass, bronze and steel, ration 25:1"

I have no idea if this is the original motor gearbox that would be supplied by DJH if you were to buy from them, I may send an email and ask!

The kit will include "waterslide transfers for lettering and lining"Depending on what they say is a special discounted price for the motor/controller bearing in mind the controller can be picked up for £30 and if it is the motor gearbox from DJH which is £100 I reckon this will end up about £100 more than buying from DJH direct.

Partwork £617.26 plus motor/gearbox and controller

DJH £690 plus transfers and controller

Will just have to wait and see I guess, still thinking about going for it or not!

Anyway here is the cab, all built to the instructions, the wash out plug holes in the cab sides were not holes, just half etched out, I just made a small hole then opened them up with a file.I also ran a bead of glue down the inside cab edges, there is just not enough area to bond on relying only on the edges, so slight deviation from instructions already, better than the cab sides falling off!